All that time I spent sponging up Marvel comic books at the long-shuttered Spa City Comics in Saratoga Springs has finally paid off—for the publisher, that is. The film Deadpool (2016), based on a character in Marvel’s 1991 title, The New Mutants, grossed a whopping $783 million-plus at worldwide box offices. Last year’s sequel, Deadpool 2, eclipsed that number, and in it, international audiences were introduced to actress Zazie Beetz, who played Domino, a superhero whose superhuman ability is being extraordinarily lucky. Beetz’s first acting gig? On campus at Skidmore College.
Skidmore Theater Professor Lary Opitz fondly remembers having Beetz (’13), in his Introduction to Theatre class, telling me that she nailed her monologue presentation and character analysis assignment. But her true collegiate tour de force, says Opitz, was her role as the titular character in Skidmore’s 2011 production of Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Nilo Cruz’s Hortensia And The Museum Of Dreams.
Since her days as a Skiddie, Beetz has been a busy bee. Aside from Deadpool 2, she’s starred in FX’s multi-Golden-Globe-winning series, Atlanta (for which she received a 2018 Emmy nomination) and will be reprising her role as Domino in X-Force (release date TBD). I think it goes without saying that Skidmore was superhumanly lucky to have rolled the dice with this talented Domino.
